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December 15
Events * 533 - Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron. *1167 - Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion. *1256 - Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia. *1467 - Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia. *1791 - The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia legislature. *1818 - Irwin County is created. *1891 - James Naismith introduces the first version of basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school's gymnasium, and two teams of nine players. *1913 - Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. *1939 - Gone with the Wind premieres in Atlanta. *1941 - Annihilation of Jews in Kharkiv, Ukraine: in the proximity of the Rogan works, 8 km away from Kharkiv, in "Drobitsky Ravine" (Drobitsky Yar), over 15 000 Jews were shot, at -15 degrees C below zero. *1945 - Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as state religion of Japan. *1960 - King Baudouin of Belgium marries Fabiola Fernanda María de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón in Brussels. * 1960 - Richard Paul Pavlick is arrested for attempting to blow up and assassinate the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy only four days earlier. *1961 - In Jerusalem, Adolph Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization. *1965 - Gemini program: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieved the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7. *1965 - The film The Sound of Music is released. *1967 - The Silver Bridge collapses, killing 46 people. *1970 - Illinois State Constitution is adopted at a special election. *1976 - Samoa becomes a member of the UN. *1993 - History of Northern Ireland: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds. *1994 - The web browser Netscape Navigator 1.0 is released. * 1994 - Palau becomes a member of the UN. *1995 - The European Communities Court of Justice hands down the "Bosman ruling", giving EU footballers the right to a free transfer at the end of their contracts, with the provision that they are transferring from one UEFA Federation to another. *1997 - A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85. *2005 - The 43rd known Mersenne prime is discovered by Dr. Curtis Cooper & Dr. Steven Boone of USA, participants of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search distributed computing project. The prime number is 2nd largest known prime and has more than nine million digits. * 2005 - Latvia edits its constitution to ban equal marriage rights to gays and lesbians. * 2005 - Argentina's president Néstor Kirchner announces the early repayment of its external debt to the IMF. * 2005 - Introduction of the F-22 Raptor into USAF active service. *2006 - First flight of the F-35 Lightning II. Births * 37 - Nero, Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (d. 68) *1832 - Gustave Eiffel, French engineer and architect (Eiffel tower) (d. 1923) *1852 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1908) *1859 - L. L. Zamenhof, Polish initiator of Esperanto (d. 1917) *1860 - Niels Ryberg Finsen, Danish physician and Nobel laureate (d. 1904) * 1860 - Abner Powell, American baseball player (d. 1953) *1861 - Charles Duryea, American automobile pioneer (d. 1938) *1878 - Hans Carossa, German writer (d. 1956) *1888 - Maxwell Anderson, American writer (d. 1959) *1892 - J. Paul Getty, American oil tycoon (d. 1976) *1899 - Harold Abrahams, British sprinter and Olympic gold medalist (d. 1978) *1907 - Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect *1910 - John H. Hammond, American musician (d. 1987) *1911 - Stan Kenton, American musician (d. 1979) *1912 - Ray Eames, American designer (d. 1988) *1913 - Muriel Rukeyser, American poet (d. 1980) * 1913 - Roger Gaudry, French Canadian chemist, businessman and corporate director (d. 2001) *1916 - Buddy Cole, American pianist (d. 1964) * 1916 - Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-born physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2004) *1917 - Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee, linguist and writer of Pakistan (d. 2005) *1918 - Jeff Chandler, American actor (d. 1961) *1920 - Kurt Schaffenberger, American comics artist (d. 2002) *1922 - Alan Freed, American disc jockey (d. 1965) *1923 - Freeman Dyson, English-born American physicist * 1923 - Valentin Varennikov, Russian general and statesman *1925 - Sam Pollock, National Hockey League general manager *1928 - Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist (d. 2000) * 1928 - Jerry Wallace, American country and popular music singer *1933 - Tim Conway, American actor and comedian * 1933 - Sattiraju Lakshmi Narayana a.k.a Bapu, Indian Cartoonist, designer and film director *1938 - Billy Shaw, American football player *1939 - Cindy Birdsong, American singer (The Supremes) *1940 - Nick Buoniconti, American football player *1942 - Dave Clark, British musician (The Dave Clark Five) *1943 - Kathleen Blanco, American Democratic politician *1943 - Lucien den Arend, Dutch artist *1944 - Chico Mendes, Brazilian campaigner (d. 1988) *1945 - Thaao Penghlis, Australian actor *1946 - Art Howe, American baseball player *1949 - Don Johnson, American actor *1952 - Cassandra Harris, Australian actress (d. 1991) * 1952 - Allan Simonsen, Danish footballer * 1952 - Julie Taymor, American director *1953 - J. M. DeMatteis, American comic book writer *1955 - Paul Simonon, English bassist (The Clash) *1957 - Yuuichi Nagashima, Japanese actor *1961 - Karin Resetarits, Austrian journalist *1963 - Andrew Luster, Max Factor heir * 1963 - Helen Slater, American actress *1967 - Mo Vaughn, American baseball player *1968 - Javid Hussain, Indian film producer * 1968 - Garrett Wang, American actor * 1968 - Osama Ali Maher, Swedish politician *1969 - Chantal Petitclerc, Quebec wheelchair athlete *1970 - Frankie Dettori, Italian champion jockey * 1970 - Michael Shanks, Canadian actor *1972 - Stuart Townsend, Irish actor * 1972 - Rodney Harrison, American football player *1973 - Surya Bonaly, French-born American figure skater * 1973 - Ryu Seung-wan, South Korean actor and director *1976 - Baichung Bhutia, Indian footballer * 1976 - Aaron Miles, American baseball player * 1976 - Elix Skipper, American professional wrestler *1978 - Mark Jansen, Dutch guitarist (Epica) * 1978 - Jerome McDougle, American football player *1979 - Adam Brody, American actor * 1979 - Eric Young, Canadian wrestler *1980 - Sergio Pizzorno, English guitarist (Kasabian) *1981 - Najoua Belyzel, French singer * 1981 - Brendan Fletcher, Canadian actor * 1981 - Andy González, Puerto Rican baseball player * 1981 - Thomas Herrion, American football player (d. 2005) * 1981 - Creighton Lovelace, American Baptist minister *1982 - Charlie Cox, English actor * 1982 - Borja García, Spanish racing driver * 1982 - George O. Gore II, American actor *1983 - René Goguen, Canadian wrestler * 1983 - Ronnie Radke, American singer *1986 - Snejana Onopka, Ukrainian supermodel Deaths *1025 - Basil II, Byzantine Emperor (b. 958) *1072 - Alp Arslan, Turkish sultan in Persia (b. 1029) *1230 - King Otakar I of Bohemia *1263 - King Haakon IV of Norway (b. 1204) *1598 - Philips van Marnix, Dutch writer and statesman (b. 1538) *1621 - Charles de Luynes, Constable of France (b. 1578) *1673 - Margaret Cavendish, English writer (b. 1623) *1675 - Johannes Vermeer, Dutch painter (b. 1632) *1683 - Izaak Walton, English writer (b. 1593) *1688 - Gaspar Fagel, Dutch statesman (b. 1634) *1715 - George Hickes, English minister and scholar (b. 1642) *1753 - Richard Boyle, English architect (b. 1694) *1792 - Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish composer (b. 1756) *1855 - Jacques Charles François Sturm, French mathematician (b. 1803) *1890 - Sitting Bull, Sioux nation leader (b. circa 1831) *1943 - Fats Waller, American musician (b. 1904) *1944 - Glenn Miller, American musician (later declared dead on this date, true date unknown) (b. 1904) *1947 - Arthur Machen, British author (b. 1863) *1950 - Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Indian political leader, Iron Man of India (b. 1875) *1958 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Austrian-born American physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1900) *1962 - Charles Laughton, English actor (b. 1899) *1966 - Walt Disney, American animator (b. 1901) *1968 - Jess Willard, American boxer (b. 1881) * 1968 - Antonio Barrette, politician, premier of Quebec (b. 1899) *1971 - Paul Pierre Lévy, French mathematician (b. 1886) *1977 - Wilfred Kitching, the 7th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1893) *1984 - Jan Peerce, American tenor (b. 1904) * 1984 - Lennard Pearce, British actor (b. 1915) *1989 - Edward Underdown, stage and film veteran (b. 1908) * 1989 - Arnold Moss, American character actor (b. 1910) *1991 - Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev, Russian-born Soviet sniper (b. 1915) *2001 - Russ Haas, American professional wrestler (b. 1974) * 2001 - Rufus Thomas, American musician (b. 1917) *2003 - George Fisher, American political cartoonist (b. 1923) * 2003 - Keith Magnuson, National Hockey League defenceman (b. 1947) *2004 - Pauline Gore, mother of American Vice President Al Gore (b. 1912) *2005 - William Proxmire, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (b. 1911) * 2005 - Darrell Russell, American football player (b. 1976) * 2005 - Heinrich Gross, Austrian physician (b. 1914) * 2005 - Stan Leonard, Canadian professional golfer (b. 1915) Holidays and observances * Roman festivals - Consualia in honor of Consus is held. * R.C. Saints - St. Valerian; Saint Nino; St. Drostan. * Zamenhof Day - celebrated in the Esperanto movement in honor of L. L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto. *Bill of Rights Day, as stated by Franklin Roosevelt. External links * BBC: On This Day * * On This Day in Canada ---- Category:December